How Romário and Bebeto set aside a personal rivalry to forge a legendary international partnership
Romário’s divine partnership with Bebeto must be seen to believed, as stats alone could never do justice to the beautiful art they created on the pitch
thesefootballtimes.co
Amazing read about the partnership between Romário and Bebeto. I am sure Bani will enjoy reading this....
Few personal takeaways:
-Brazil won the 1989 Copa America after 40 year drought, even beating a Maradona led Argentine team 2-0! All thanks to the new partnership of Bebeto and Romário. Yet in the following year at the WC, neither star played a significant role, mainly due to injuries. I admit , while I was already a fan of Brazil at the time, I wasn’t much into the game so do t remember the details. So this begs the question, what could be different if both of them played, along with Careca. Could Brazil have gone all the way?
-Related to the point above, it is unfortunate that Romário easily missed 2/3 WCs either to injuries or his outspoken personality. Some claim he was good enough even for 2002, though I am not sure he was needed. And in 1998, although Zagalo claims he wasn’t called due to injury, the truth is probably due to his clashes with the coach. Just imagine Romário playing with Ronaldo. We had all seen what they had done together the prior year in Copa America and the Confederation Cup.
-I didn’t know this, but Romário and Bebeto were 28 and 30 respectively when they won the WC in 1994, which is relatively old for your main superstars. Other than Pele being 29 in 1970, most other Brazilian strikers who won it were younger.
-Given his brash personality and extremely outspoken style, not to mention his physique and dribbling, I am more convinced now that Romário - not Pele or Ronaldo- is the closest comparison Brazil has to Maradona